Full Description
Current debates about boys and schooling in many Western nations are increasingly characterised by a sense of crisis as government reports, academic research and the day to day experiences of teachers combine to indicate that:
* boys are consistently underperforming in literacy
* boys are continuing to opt out of English and humanities
* boys represent the majority of behaviour problems and counselling referrals
* boys receive a disproportionate amount of special education support
This book responds to the complexity of the current debates associated with boys, gender reform, literacy and schooling by offering a clear map of the current context, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the various competing solutions put forward, and outlining a range of practical classroom interventions designed for dealing with the boys/literacy crisis. The authors consider the ways in which particular views of masculinity, gender reform, literacy, technology and popular culture can either open up or close down new conceptualisations of what it means to be a boy and what it means to be literate.
Contents
Introduction
Dangerous places
debates about boys, girls, schooling and gender based literacy reform
What about the boys?
the rhetoric and realities of the new gender crisis
How, who, where, when, why and what way?
mindsets on gender reform in schools
Some really useful theoretical company for transforming and transformative literacy education
Mindsets matter
an overview of major literacy worldviews
Making it not so
transformative literacy practices for girls and boys
Exorcising digital demons
information technology, new literacies and the de/re-construction of gendered subjectivities
From Pacman to Pokemon
cross generational perspectives on gender and reform in a 'post-feminist' age
Conclusion
Index.
